Anyone else heard about animals getting drunk from fruits...?

So I was reading about how some animals eat fermented fruits and end up drunk :sweat_smile:. I mean, I thought that only humans did this! Anyone else found it funny that even birds and bees sometimes get tipsy from nature? Kinda wild, right?

Haha yeah, I read that elephants supposedly get drunk on marula fruit! Is that actually real though? Sounds like something out of a meme lol.

Apparently, it’s a bit exaggerated. They’d have to eat tons of fruit to feel it… but they do nibble on it sometimes.

Wait… marula fruit? What’s that? :sweat_smile:

It’s a fruit in Africa. Ferments fast and some animals seem to love it.

Yup! It’s like a natural booze fruit :tropical_drink:. And monkeys also seem to have a thing for it.

Cedar waxwings getting drunk and flying into windows is wild though… imagine being that bird :joy:.

Lol right? Poor birds must think ‘Why do I keep crashing into stuff?’ :woozy_face:

Apparently, they sometimes end up in rehab too… no joke, some wildlife centers help them recover!

Has anyone heard about bees getting drunk from nectar? I saw something about hives kicking out tipsy bees.

Lol, for real? A bee bar fight happening at the hive entrance? :joy:

Yeah! The drunk bees disrupt the hive, so they get rejected… harsh life for the buzzed ones.

Wait, what’s nectar again? Is it just like sugary stuff from flowers?

Exactly! Flowers make it to attract pollinators. But if it ferments, bees get tipsy off it.

The tree shrew thing blew my mind… this little guy drinks fermented nectar every night and just stays chill.

For real? That sounds like me during finals week with coffee :rofl:.

Lol right? And the shrew doesn’t even get drunk… it’s evolved to handle alcohol better than most of us.

So is this ‘drunken monkey hypothesis’ just a way of saying animals evolved to like booze?

Sort of! It’s more like they use the smell of ethanol to find ripe fruits. Pretty clever, huh?

Yeah, basically nature’s way of saying ‘This fruit is ready… come get it!’ :apple::banana: